John B

I'll try and look for the reference I have at home. I'm happy to be straightened out , Water rat,buts thats what I was told and what I have read . Westhaven was a boating facility before marina berths were built.eh.

People forget that Westhaven and Okahu hardstand and ramp were fundamentally developed as gifts to the people of Auckland to foster the sport of boating, just after WW2. The intent was that they stayed that way in perpetuity. As I understand it , it was handled in a handshake kind of lease arrangement between the Govt/local bodies at the time, and that lack of hard documentation is what has put us all in this situation now, where the boaters of Auckland are having their infrastructure sold off underneath them. That doesn't alter the intent of the agreement made .

Were you away this season Southernman , I did see a similar looking boat but can't remember where , maybe Tonga. I thought the paint treatment looked great. edit: Just a thought , did we chat here a few times years ago? Did you do a delivery around 2011 or 12, stuck on a boat in minerva with a skipper who wouldn't move?

I used to have a pup tent like that. Wasn't quite double length like that one though.

Thats what we should have done. Got put off in Tonga when every single person we knew had trouble getting it set up, with extra trips in to the shop to get settings altered. In retrospect I think the vodafone users we knew would selectively turn on for day at a time to get connected back to life in sunny En Zed. So they would pay their $5 for a days connection when in range. What pissed me off was getting the Spark welcome to Tonga /Fiji text , accepting its invitation to sign up for a week for $20 ,and then getting no service.

Is it.. my bad then. People who had it were happy because it worked.

Yeah the only way all those 'wealthy boaties,' company directors, professionals (etc including small business owners like me ) with Spark plans they pay for year in year out on multiple devices and landlines and internet connections , can get coverage at Barrier on the annual holiday is to borrow a kids vodafone phone. Really clever bit of demographic profiling there Spark. You saved some money by giving it up to Vodafone , and you pissed off the people who pay the bills. Same happened in the Pacific actually, guys like me on Spark had offers of twenty buck per week roaming in Tonga a

My experience of Spark coverage at Great Barrier is that its worse than useless. Worse because its so frustrating. Why a company like that would just hold up its hands and say 'take it Vodafone' is beyond me.

I never used one in NZ but after a few months use over winter I wouldn't be without it now. Pretty important when you're amongst the reefs or prefer to anchor in more interesting places. The way mine works is you anchor and then set it. It has a ghost track so can see where you stopped or changed direction. You move the anchor to that point. I suppose you could just set it at the same time you put the anchor down, I don't.

Thats big news about SD! What a weapon she'll be offshore. Maybe she could cruise to Christmas island and make a visit to her big sister.

This is a really good example of where the statement ' how long is a piece of string' is totally appropriate. But the answer is just outside the radius of your piece of string. We have some fantastic anchor watch art off our screen, used it to unhitch ourselves off bommies too.

We spent the weekend with the old classics and a few future classics at Patio bay. There were some old boats too.

My vhf has a turn off/ on and I've found it discharged before now. Accidentally turned on. Good to know what went wrong, a lot of talk about the mast hopping out of the step and robin hooding down through the hull, but now we know the truth, a chainplate failure . Good to know, Unlike two other fatal boating accidents being sat on by the authorities, How long does it take to write a report? ANSWER .. LONG ENOUGH that everyone has forgotten about it . Except perhaps the people who sail on the sea and who would like to know , so they can safeguard against something similar happenin

Peter Blakes cruising schooner ( forget the name), been doing that for a couple / few years now.

See thats actually quite encouraging to see that damage because its not a totally 'hidden' danger. Thats all quite obvious and would be be showing above or below the deck line upon inspection. And that inspection has prompted the replacement ( Am I right Dtwo?)

One of the Farrs used to lose forestays back in the day but that was down to method, set tapping the bolts into resin. We do need to be wary of crevice corrosion on our older boats, particularly Where a chainplate pierces the deck. They work over time and set up the leak plus oxygen formula needed to make it happen. There's been a couple of boats on this site with issues discussed at length over the years. One had leaks through the deck and the bolts into a bulkhead fried and died. In may a p38 we were sailing with lost a chainplate and rig about 200 miles off the coast. He cut his rig away

Kinda puts the lid on the Tauranga / Italy stuff doesn't it.

I saw that boat, a John Welsford Navigator, in blue lagoon. Market boat.. they go around the yachts. He told me he sails it to Lautoka.

If your filler is on the deck amidships you can block up the scuppers and fill directly. I just stuffed rags in the scuppers and a towel around the filler( after a wash off period of course). Thats the whole boat catching water not just a cover, and its a lot.

"Go small , go now " To quote Lin Pardey. I don't see why not. In 5 or 6 months in Fiji or Tonga or both and back , you spend what .. say 2 to 3 weeks actually at sea and the rest mostly gunkholing or maybe a night or two here and there. So the ratio of at sea time passage making and the whole daily run thing is pretty minor in terms of the whole trip. And I'll mention something else too. We're all used to racing and thats get there as fast as you can. Cruising passage making is about timing your arrival, so while a nice daily run is great chances are you'll be putting the brakes on for a

A Farr 1220 is a relatively lightweight fast cruiser , and a fine job they do of it. But I agree , A Cav 45 is not comparable , its a hell of a lot bigger for one. What are they.. about 20 tons? somewhere around there.... 18 maybe. That boat would be very cheap at 200 k but I fear it'll be high 100's or low 200's. Its new for a Cav 45 too. I hope the guy gets what he wants.

Seaforth aint a Cav 45. She's a newer generation .We spent some time with those guys , great people. We had 3 Davidson 45's( Seaforth might be 46) lined up in fulaga, one of which was a cav . That design , Cav 45, is probably one of the best ocean boats you can buy .Ton of room , indestructible, fast in cruiser terms. Stix , schmix ,book learning does not trump one of the worlds best designers . Those boats get cat 1 all day every day and they can't do that without the correct stability . Vingalot was made to get a stability report for the round NZ a few years ago for whatever the rac

Fair enough, are you replacing it with the same or going lip seal?

Best thing I did was disconnect the stack pack from the lazy jacks because it just was unacceptable flapping around there while sailing. So what we have is a bag that lives on the boom inside the jacks. we just roll it and tuck it in a bit each side and it disappears along the boom. drop the sail as usual inside the lazy jacks , shake the cover out and zip it up no problem. No wear or chafe issues, must be close on 5 years old now. I'll tell you for free what they don't tell you about stack packs though. They have a zip along the top and rainwater accumulates like you will not belie

Jesus , who put those hose clips on, thats going to leak. Oh I see... just moved out of the way. So you didn't believe my fix with the paste eh. . There should be a nut in that coupling holding onto the tapered or keyed shaft. It might need a puller but I'd try a few taps with a hammer once I'd checked that all fastenings were out. Sometimes there will be a set screw in through the casing to stop the nut from turning or to back up the key.